Eat, Pray, Love... My Fave Movie Ever...

Hi everyone..

I had wanted to read this book ever since I saw Elizabeth Gilbert, the author, was on the Oprah Show. Known as Liz, she said that this book was about her journey in finding herself, finding God and inner peace. When I heard that her book was to be made into a movie I was quite excited but I wanted to read the book first before watching the movie because let's face it, whenever a book is made into a movie it almost always doesn't do the book any justice. I didn’t manage to but so far I have no regrets of watching the movie first in this case.

The book...

Anyway…

As I had mentioned above, this book is about Elizabeth Gilbert’s journey and the things she learned along the way. You see, on the outside she seems to have it all. She has a career, a marriage, a house and a car, basically everything that people would say a woman should have to be complete. However, Liz doesn’t feel complete on the inside. She doesn’t want to be in her marriage any longer, she’s not happy in her own home, etc.

This made her feel guilty because she knows that there are so many women out there who would love to have the life she had. The guilt was such that one day she couldn’t stand it anymore that she started to pray for the first time in her life. It was only after that that she was able to have the strength and asked for a divorce. 

Elizabeth Gilbert

She decided to take a year off and planned to travel starting at Italy to learn the Italian language, followed by going to India to learn meditation at an ashram and ending the journey in Bali to see a medicine man named Ketut whom she had met a few months before her divorce (her ever meeting Ketut before her divorce is based on the movie, I’m not sure if that really happened).

‘Eat’ represented her travels in Italy where she ate so much that she gained a lot of weight (If I’m not mistaken she gained 30 pounds), ‘Pray’ represented her learning meditation in India and ‘Love’ represented her finding love in Bali.

I cried so many times during the movie, not because it was a soppy love story or because someone died. I cried because I can really feel Liz’s struggle in trying to find her way, trying to find peace, trying to run away from the guilt that she felt. All that she experienced was so raw and really relatable.

For example, during her time in India she expected to be able to learn meditating right off the bat and that by doing so she would be able to automatically feel peace. Her expectations of a quick fix were normal, like what any normal person trying to get away from emotional burden would have. But it didn’t turn out to be that easy, and she had to work out her personal issues.

Not only did she have to fight her personal demons along the way, she also had to face the views of women from various societies on women and marriage. The elder women she met during her journey (her Italian tutor’s mother and Ketut’s assistant) was incredulous over the fact that she was divorced and couldn’t really comprehend her lack of desire to be married. Her young Indian friend that she met at the ashram had to go through an arranged marriage even though she was reluctant and had big dreams because society expects her to get married at her age.

During her time at the ashram she met her soul mate, a man named Richard. Now, this is interesting because whenever we hear the word ‘soul mate’ we automatically think that it is someone that we are romantically involved with right? But instead, Liz used the word soul mate to describe Richard not because he was the love of her life but because he is a friend whom she connected with on so many levels. He was quite mean to her at first though, and called her ‘Groceries’ because she ate so much. Hehe...

The movie also made me laugh till my sides hurt, especially during the time when she was in Italy. One of my favorite scenes were her initial conversation with her Italian landlady about bathwater and the landlady’s theory on what American women want when they’re in Italy which are spaghetti and sausage (believe me, it’s a sausage of a different kind *wink*).

Another favorite of mine is when an Italian barber told her that she won’t be able to learn Italian if she just learnt the words, she needs to learn the gestures as well. So they went to the streets and mimicked the various gestures that Italian people make and it went in slow motion with explainations on what they meant.

The medicine man in Bali, Ketut, was also funny. His favorite saying was “See you later Alligator”. Liz met her husband-to-be in Bali. They met when he almost ran her over with his truck. Luckily, she only ended in a ditch and not under his truck. She was wary of him at first even when he was very nice to her (well, he did almost ran her over right..) but eventually they became friends and their friendship evolved to become a wonderful relationship. She almost broke up with him though because she felt that with him she couldn’t achieve balance in her life, something that had taken her so long to achieve.

Thankfully, Ketut told her something that goes like this: when something good makes our life unbalanced, it is then that our life is balanced… Or something like that.. God I think I totally botched that one up.. Hahaha… Anyway, that’s what got Liz back together with her guy.

So there you have it, why I’m so in love with the movie Eat, Pray, Love. I’m almost afraid to read the book now. I’m afraid that I would be disappointed if it doesn’t live up to the movie and if it was the other way around I’m afraid that I would be crying buckets of tears throughout the book.

All in all it’s a very inspirational story that relates to everyone, especially women, regardless of whether you’re single, married, working, housewife, young or old. I congratulate the director of this movie and above all, Julia Roberts for playing the character so well. 

Julia Roberts as Liz in the movie...

I’ve never really watched her movies and I’ve never had an opinion on her acting before but after seeing her in this movie, I’m a fan. Maybe one day I’ll watch her playing Erin Brocavitch. Gee, come to think of it she has acted in two movies that are based on true story.. She’s THAT good. Julia, I love you! Hehehe..

That’s all for now friends. I hope you guys will go out and watch the movie. It’s really worth the money. Cheers!